Macadamia tetraphylla

Macadamia tetraphylla is a nut tree native to Australia.   The pendulous flowers are beautiful and have the fragrance of honey.  The scent is detectable in the vicinity of the tree.

The floral sprays can be up to 15 inches in length.  The blooms appear in early spring from the leaf axils of mature wood on horizontal branches.

The nuts start to swell as soon as the bloom is finished, and develop over the summer.

The nuts ripen by late summer or early fall and the husks split open to reveal the nut inside.

Macadamias are evergreen and grow 30-40 foot tall.  The leaves are stiff and leathery with sharp prickles along the margins.  New growth is a coppery-red color.

Macadamias are listed as hardy to 24° F but I suspect they could survive lower than that.  Mine had no damage at all during an extended period of 26° last winter.  The trees are drought-tolerant once established, but nut production will be improved with adequate soil moisture.
After cracking open the brown shells, the white nuts inside can be eaten raw or roasted.

Harvest Monday -September

The Starfruit trees are bearing lots of fruit as their season starts in earnest this month.

Persian Limes and Key Limes are also ready in large quantities, as well as a few Limequats.

The Pineapple harvest continues and I look forward to slicing into each and every one!

A double-header!

Jaboticabas have been producing a few fruits every week all summer long.
I'm also picking a few Elderberries, Glycosmis, Cattley Guavas, Passionfruit, and Cereus fruits.

The fall vegetables are growing but haven't started producing yet.  There is still plenty of Okinawa Spinach as well as Basil, Mint, and Cuban Oregano.

To see what gardeners everywhere are harvesting this week, visit Daphne's Dandelions for the Harvest Monday meme!

Creature Feature - Grizzled Mantis

This is a Grizzled Mantis (Gonatista grisea) female.  The males have wings that cover the abdomen.  They are predaceous insects, typically feeding on other arthropods.  The females are more commonly seen because the males are often eaten immediately after mating.  
They are known for their ability to blend in with their surroundings.  This species is also sometimes known as the Lichen Mimic Mantid.  This two inch long one was nearly invisible on the trunk of a starfruit tree.
*UPDATE* -- When I published this post this morning, I had only seen this bug the one time I took the photo, but lo and behold... when I went out in the garden this afternoon, there was a male on the same tree!  Maybe I'll soon have lots of little Lichen Mimic Mantids running around here!  Here's his picture..

The First Friday Creature Feature is a monthly event on this blog, held on the First Friday of every month.
This month I'm inviting anyone who has recently posted about a creature in their garden to join in on the fun.  Simply link below and leave a comment.  Thanks for participating!

What's New - September

September is here already(!) and the days are growing shorter.  My garden is always in best form this time of year.
The change of seasons is starting to show.  The Magnolia pods are opening to reveal their shiny red seeds, and fallen pods litter the ground.

The Beautyberry is showing its royal purple colors...

and Firespike is sending out its scarlet blooms.

Amazingly, several of my plants that I thought were frozen dead last winter have just started showing signs of life, eight months after our last freeze!  Dracaena massangeana, Ficus Alii, Erythrina herbacea, and a yellow Hibiscus have just pushed out their first growths in the past few weeks.  Just this morning I saw the first signs of life on an Aechmea chantinii that was planted in the ground.
I've planted tomatoes, beans, squash, and cucumbers for the fall garden.  The timing of the rains was perfect and they are up and growing in no time.

The late-summer to fall fruits are ready.  I'm picking lots of pineapples, starfruit, and limes right now.

As the main pineapple crop of the year matures, there is always another round of blooms that will produce fruit to ripen near the end of the year.

What's New is a monthly roundup of the miscellaneous tidbits going on in my garden.  It's also part of the Tuesday Garden Party hosted by An Oregon Cottage.

Mother Nature's Artistry

Today's installment is a close-up of the center of a sunflower head before the flower buds open.

Mother Nature's Artistry is a monthly event on this blog, held on the last day of every month.

Pineapple (Ananas comosus)

Mid- to late summer marks the peak of the pineapple season for most home-growers, although pineapples can fruit any month of the year in warm climates.

What many people don't realize is that there are many different varieties, each with their own unique characteristics. The fruit you buy in the grocery store is pretty much all some variation of the Smooth Cayenne variety.  The other varieties that are not so easily found have fruit with different textures, flavors, color, size, etc.

What many people also don't realize is how beautiful pineapple plants are as they prepare to flower.  Here is a sampling of a few different varieties:

Pineapples are very easy to grow in areas where winter temperatures don't drop below the mid 20s F.  In colder regions, many varieties can easily be grown in pots. 
The plants will grow in either sun or shade, but plants in sunny locations usually fruit sooner than shaded  plants. 

Most people start their first pineapple plant from the crown of a pineapple they bought at the store.  This is easy to do.  Simply twist off the top, let it dry for a couple of days, pull off any dried or small leaves at the base, and stick it in the dirt.  

Unfortunately, this is not the best way to start pineapples and first-time growers are usually disappointed with the long wait for fruit (possibly 3 years or more).

The best way to start a pineapple is from a sucker.  You'll have to know someone who is already growing pineapples to get these, so make some friends!  The suckers grow directly from the main stem of the mother plant and usually appear from the leaf axils after fruiting.  

Leave one large sucker growing from the lowest point on the mother plant to produce next year's fruit.  Remaining suckers can be removed and planted on their own.  

Allow suckers to grow a little larger than a typical pineapple crown before removing them. Here's a sucker that is ready to be removed.

Remove it by pulling outward and twisting to the side at the same time.  A nice big sucker will pop right off the mother plant.  These are ready to stick in the ground immediately, and often fruit within a year.

Another method of starting new plants is to take one of the slips that develop on the fruiting stem, or at the base of the developing fruit. These planting pieces usually won't mature as fast as a sucker, but they will fruit sooner than a crown. 

The slips attached to the fruiting stem will continue to grow as long as they are attached. Again, allow them to reach a good size before removing them. Here are some slips growing after the fruit has been harvested.

The slips attached to the base of the fruit will be removed when you harvest the fruit and cut it for eating. These will be smaller than the slips allowed to grow on the fruiting stem, but they will still develop into nice plants. Some pineapple varieties are more likely to do this than others.

As the pineapple fruit grows, it will have a dark purplish coloration in most varieties. 

As it nears maturity, it will turn green.  

At this stage you'll want to start watching it closely.  As soon as the base of the fruit turns yellow and develops the familiar pineapple fragrance, it's time to pick or time to protect it!  If you leave fragrant fruit ripening out in the open, some creature of the night will pick it for you and you'll only be left with scraps!

Once you get a few pineapples going, they will continue to multiply every year, and soon you'll have plenty of fruit to share with friends and neighbors!

And remember, nothing tastes better than a fruit you've grown yourself!

Cestrum aurantiacum (Yellow Cestrum)

Cestrum aurantiacum is one of the hardiest species in the genus (USDA Zones 8-11).
The plant can be grown as a large shrub, or small multi-trunk tree up to 10 foot in height.
The tubular, yellow flowers only develop a very faint citrus scent after dark, so I don't classify this one as a fragrant plant.  This species also doesn't cycle in and out of flower like many other Cestrums.  Flowering is non-stop nearly all year long at the tips of the branches.

Cestrum aurantiacum blooms best in full sun to part shade.  The blooms attract butterflies, particularly Gulf Fritillaries and Giant Swallowtails.
It's odd that this plant is so hard to find in cultivation.  The fact that it is cold-hardy, attracts butterflies, and blooms all year would seem to make it a near-perfect plant!

Cestrum diurnum (Day Jasmine)

Cestrum diurnum is the counterpoint to Cestrum nocturnum.  This one releases its fragrance during the day.  The leaves of the Day Jasmine are smaller, thicker, and darker green.  The growth habit is stiffer and more upright to a height of 6-8 foot.  This species is also more cold hardy; it is supposed to tolerate temperatures in the low 20's F.
The tubular flowers of C. diurnum are white, with the scent of honey.  Many references describe it as a chocolate fragrance.  Maybe they think chocolate sells better than honey?  At least one nursery sells this as 'White Chocolate Jasmine'.
Flowers appear year-round with each flush of new growth.

The plant is invasive in some tropical regions.

Cestrum nocturnum (Night-blooming Jasmine)

Night-blooming Jasmine, properly known as Cestrum nocturnum, is a highly fragrant shrub for sun or part shade.  The small greenish-white, tubular flowers appear on new growth, opening only at night to release their perfume.  During the day, they close back up again.

The fragrance can be quite intense and carries throughout an entire neighborhood.  Some references claim this is the world's strongest smelling plant!  All of the plants bloom repeatedly throughout the summer and all bloom at the same time.  Each flowering cycle lasts about a week.
Cestrum nocturnum is fast-growing, and can quickly reach 12-15 foot in height if not trimmed back regularly.  In this photo, the roof line is at 10 feet, giving you an idea of the ultimate size of the plant and the quantity of flowers they can produce.

The vine growing on the Cestrum is Chayote!

The Night-blooming Jasmine is fairly tender and will freeze back during a hard freeze, but rebounds rapidly in the spring, ready for another season of intoxicating fragrance!
It is native to tropical America, and is recommended for USDA Zones 8-11.

Maypop (Passiflora incarnata)

Passiflora incarnata, or Maypop as it is commonly known, is a deciduous species of Passionflower native to the southeastern U.S. (USDA Zones 6-9).  They will flourish in full sun to light shade.

The plants emerge in early spring and quickly start spreading over the surface of the ground.  If the vines find something to climb on, up they go to a height of nearly 12 feet.

The vines are host to the larvae of Gulf Fritillary and Zebra Longwing butterflies, as well as the Banded Hairstreak, and Julia.  The adult butterflies also visit the open flowers for nectar.

The blooms are similar to many species of Passiflora, and this is also one of the fruiting types.  The flowers have an intoxicating fragrance.  As soon as the blossoms fade, the young fruits start to develop.

The remnants of the flower remain even as the fruit approaches mature size.

The fruits will grow larger than a hen's egg to near tennis ball size, and when they are ripe, they turn a dull yellow-green color.  When mature, the passionfruit will develop the characteristic fragrance, and the skin may become puckered or puffy.

At this stage, the passionfruit is ready to eat!  Simply cut in half and spoon out the contents.

The edible fruit of Passiflora incarnata is not as slimy as some other species of passionfruit.  In this species, the juice is firmly contained within the numerous juice sacs inside the fruit.  They can be spooned out and eaten without breaking and spilling their contents.  The fruit can also be pressed or processed for juice, and used to flavor ice creams and other delicious treats!
A tea made from the dried leaves is supposed to soothe nerves and cure insomnia.
Maypops spread by seed and root suckers, so once you have them established in your garden, you will always have a plentiful supply of butterflies and fruit!